The Driller Killer (1979)
Okay, here we have the film that pretty much single handed
kicked off the entire UK video nasty furore.
The film was released in the UK by Video in Picture Company (VIPCO) and
after taking out full page adverts in video magazines found itself at the wrath
of Mary Whitehouse and various religious groups. The term ‘video nasty’ was
conjured up by Whitehouse to describe any film deemed unacceptable due to their
graphic content. Admittedly, it was an excellent sound bite, hence the
persistence of the term today.
The poster and video box cover didn’t do Driller Killer any
favours, featuring a screaming tramp with blood streaming down his face while a
Black and Decker is embedded in his forehead. The tag line ‘The drill tears
through flesh and bone and the blood flows in rivers’ was on the provocative
side too!
The panic generated by Mary Whitehouse in 1982 spread to the
national newspapers in the UK and lo and behold The Mail was at the forefront
of the campaign. You couldn’t pick up a newspaper without reading a story of
the corrupting influence of movies that we’re showing allegedly real killings
and being traded through underground networks. Time has diluted the panic and
the majority of films that were placed on the Director of Public Prosecutions
list have now had uncut releases and become cult and even mainstream classics.
One of the other notorious movies that actually landed a distributor in jail
has had a recent big budget remake; The Evil Dead. Admittedly, there are still
some films on the list that will not be given a full uncut release in the UK
such as Salo, Buio Omega or Cannibal Holocaust but the majority aren’t as
offensive as some of the newer films which are violent fetishist porn with gore
masquerading under the broader church of horror.
The plot for The Driller Killer was fairly simple; a down
and out artist (played by director Abel Ferrara under the name Jimmy Laine) is
struggling to make a living. Already on the brink of madness he is tipped over
the edge by the arrival in his apartment block of a pretty terrible punk band
whose incessant playing drives him crazy. The result of this daily barrage of
punk music, his failing art and problems with his girlfriend is his dispatching
of city bums via a cordless drill. There is a Catholic religious subtext to the
film which elevates it slightly but it’s never really explored in any depth.
It was the graphic and violent murders that propelled the
film to notoriety in the UK (along with that cover) and for it’s time that
level of brutality wasn’t common place, with maybe the exception of A Clockwork
Orange. It was pretty shocking for a
twelve year old and I remember distinctly feeling very uneasy at what I was
watching. It did affect me and it was a long time until I could wipe the
imagery or at least deal with what I watched. It wasn’t the head drilling scene
so coveted by the newspapers but the sadistic opening murder and the sight of a
skinned rabbit having its skull repeatedly stabbed until it fell apart. The
scuzzy nature of the film leaves you feeling like you’re in need of a wash
afterwards, partly due to the NYC locations which in the late 70’s weren’t as
inviting as today. So much so we hired
Disney’s The Duck that Laid the Golden Egg in the afternoon to lessen the
impact!
Abel Ferrara has gone on from The Driller Killer to make
some well received and excellent films such as Bad Lieutenant and a remake of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers; maybe his fame stemmed from the notoriety
gained with his debut release.
The film probably doesn’t deserve the reputation heaped upon
it, but don’t be under any illusion that it’s an easy film to watch because it
isn’t. It is violent and bloody and while it doesn’t reach the heights of Taxi
Driver which I see as its inspiration it is worth watching to see the film that
started the entire Video Nasty Era!
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